Section 8 - Tenant Referral

[Alexander Hish]

I have a contact who owned a section 8 rental where the tenants caused over 10,000 in damages. Section 8 refused to do anything to the tenant and they stayed in the voucher program. Shortly after this same tenant applied for another home. My contact said a landlord reached out to them and asked for a reference where they then factually disclosed the damages done by the tenant.

The new landlord refused the tenant based on this information. My contact ended up getting a call from section 8 stating if they say anything bad about this tenant again the federal government will pursue them legally and also kick them out of section 8.

Have you ever heard of anything like this? The law states you can provide any factual information on a previous tenant and that NOT disclosing information can make you liable. I know of no other laws that apply specifically to section 8 references. This sounds like bullying to me. My contact is seeking legal council but I wanted to hear if anyone has a similar story.